October 22, 2016

Kit Siang: Budget speech shows Najib’s denial syndrome

The DAP’s Lim Kit Siang has decried the lack of reference to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal when Prime Minister Najib Razak delivered the budget estimates for 2017 on Friday.

In a media statement today, the DAP adviser said it was “sad, shocking and most embarrassing” that there is not a word about the 1MDB scandal.

“This is Najib’s denial syndrome at its worst”, he said.

He rebutted Najib’s description of an opposition demonstration in Parliament yesterday as an embarrassment, saying that it was Najib who had embarrassed himself with his budget speech, which had “not a word of refutation” about Malaysia’s infamy as a result of US Justice Department suits under its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative in July.

“In fact, there is not a word about Malaysia’s fight against corruption in the 2017 Budget despite the backdrop of Malaysia’s newly-acquired international infamy as a global kleptocracy,” Lim said.

He said Parliament must bear part responsibility if Malaysia fell in ranking on the Transparency International corruption perception index for 2016 to be published in December, for pretending that the 1MDB problem does not exist.